Top 10 Telecommuting Jobs for Medical Professionals

Telecommuting jobs are the wave of the future. Because of our technology, we can now work some jobs anywhere we want from our computers.

The American dream is changing, and most people want that dream to include sweat pants and working from home. Some people think that telecommuting jobs are hard to find or only for writers and designers. But what most people don’t know is that a few medical jobs allow you to do them from the comfort of your own home– no hospitals, no patients, no unwanted bodily fluids.

Telecommuting jobs are the wave of the future. Hopefully, in the future, none of us will have to go to a building to do our jobs– we can just do them from the comfort of our own homes– or, if you don’t like your homes, somewhere else.

So, we wanted to find the best telecommuting jobs for healthcare professionals. Here is our list of medical jobs you can do from the comfort of your home– some of them while still wearing PJs.

The Best Telecommuting Jobs Include:

1. Health Information Specialist

If you’ve ever seen a doctor or been to the dentist, you have a medical record. That record holds everything from exams to test results and treatment plans. Health Information Specialists are the special few in the industry that maintains all of those medical records. They organize, computerize, and maintain them to make sure they are correct and that we don’t accidentally end up on the wrong side of a surgical knife– or get the wrong medicine.

They make sure medical charts are accurate and complete, they compile a patient’s complete info, authenticate each patient’s history, store everything on the computer, and analyze data.

Since most of their work is computerize now, they can do this job from their homes. They usually receive documents from medical institutions that they organize and set up. They can also spend time talking to patient’s verifying information. Either way, this job is done both in medical facilities and at home, with more at-home positions available every year we progress in our information security.

2. Nurse Case Manager

Nurse case managers work with physicians and patients to ensure proper medical care is provided. They coordinate between patients, families, and doctors. They can monitor and evaluate the health care of a patient and work with other members of a medical team.

Usually, if you work from home, you consult with other RNs and doctors and coordinate care through telephone and the internet. You basically set everything up, make sure the most efficient care is being offered, and see that the patient receives proper care through all of their treatment. You work to organize care, advocate for your patient, and correspond between doctors and family.

3. Medical Director

A medical director is a physician who gives guidance, provides leadership and oversees the practice of caregivers in an area. They direct treatment and create protocols for treatment for other physicians and care providers.

Now, they this is one of the big telecommuting jobs in healthcare because the internet and networking systems allow doctors to correspond and create treatment protocols for different facilities in an area. Now, tenured, well-practiced doctors can move into a more administrative role where they can organize and create systems over a whole area of hospitals.

Doctors can move into roles where they can develop systems and help other caregivers grow professionally and help hospitals become better care centers through their programs and systems. It’s great for any M.D. who loves to organize, create, correspond, and lead. Through a medical director’s initiatives, policies are instated and treatment protocols improve. It’s a ton of responsibility, but it makes great money (about 252,000 on average) and the job can be done from home.

4. Medical Coder

Medical coders have a strong inclination toward math and numbers. They mostly perform administrative tasks, which is why they can do this job from their homes. They usually take care of billing and process medical claims. These claims are then sent to billing offices and insurance companies. This is definitely a job better done at home.

Sometimes, medical coders must interact with nurses, doctors, and other healthcare providers to get additional information about medical claims, but mostly they just work off the numbers and facts submitted to them. They do have to contact insurance companies, which could probably be a pain, but it’s all in the day of a medical coder. It’s definitely one of the best telecommuting jobs if you want to do a task and not be bothered by too many people and chill out at home while you work.

5. Pharmaceutical Representative

As a pharmaceutical representative, you definitely work outside of an office, but you usually go to hospitals and care facilities to meet with physicians and provide drug info and samples. Your purpose is to try to establish sales and a business relationship with doctors in a certain territory. Pharmaceutical reps also monitor prescribing patterns and see what kind of meds are pushed in a certain geographical area.

But, it beats working in one specific location. And pharmaceutical reps usually make pretty good money– especially if they push a popular drug. They do usually get a company car and have a home-based office. But most of their time is definitely spent out in the field meeting with care providers.

6. Research Scientist

A research scientist primarily gathers information and compiles research. They benefit the medical and scientific community by studying and doing research on a number of medical problems. Although they work in labs, some have home labs and many do field research. Both of these aspects makes this an atypical 9-5 job.

Research scientists, for the medical community, create experiments that are approved and funded by an interested organization. They usually publish their findings and do a number of things in academia. They should be ready to travel a lot with this job and work in the field. Although they don’t usually work out of an office in your typical 9-5, they still work long hours, and can work at irregular times. Much of what they do is very autonomous, though, and provides many interesting opportunities for them.

7. Home Based Physician

Yes, there are home-based physicians. With all the new medical apps and monitoring software we have, some physicians work from home, consulting over the internet and monitoring patients. They correspond over the phone with other healthcare providers, patients, and the patient families. They are licensed, registered physicians who have all the power and autonomy of their facility-practicing counterparts, except they don’t have to see patients face-to-face.

Sometimes these physicians travel to other care facilities to consult, or even meet with the patients at their home. They usually have to work within the boundaries set by a healthcare network, but they do have certain freedoms other doctors don’t. Of course, they must meet HIPAA regulations and can only offer advice over the internet. There are shifting rules and policies, so in some states you can get prescriptions from online doctors, but in some instances, you can’t get them remotely or outside of the state where that doctor practices.

We have pushed into unchartered territory, so basically the medical community is learning as it goes with this one. Policies change every year, and as the practice increases, who knows what will be allowed and what won’t.

8. Patient Advocate

Patient advocates support and promote patients’ rights as they navigate the healthcare system. They can work in hospitals, independent for-profit facilities, or from home. They usually consult with patients over the phone and help them with their problems in the healthcare system. Some patient advocates focus in one specific area, so they can help those patients through the process in an area they know best. For instance, a cancer patient advocate will know all the connections and best routes for patient’s with cancer.

They usually work with their patients over the phone and the internet and contact their resources the same way. Sometimes they interact directly with care providers and patients and monitor progress along the way. Patient advocates are a patient’s direct personal care facilitator. Usually, patients with terminal and acute illnesses have patient advocates because their care can be super convoluted and have many obstacles.

9. Medical Transcriptionist

Medical transcriptionists transcribe (write) medical records and doctor notes. They have the task of listening to audio files of notes and documenting them in words. They also write and document medical records. This usually involves them deciphering medical jargon and compiling notes and other things into readable, organized medical records. They can transcribe patient histories, evaluations, physical reports, clinic notes, discharge papers, and prescription history.

They usually work from home because they get all these files electronically and do not need to be in an office to transcribe them. They do need to type very fast and have a high knowledge of medical vocabulary. Many transcriptionists can work for many doctors and can basically act as an independent worker where they can get a ton of work. There are a ton of freelance medical transcriptionist jobs, and if you are good at it, you can make a lot of money.

10. Telephone Triage Nurse

Telephone triage nurses (TTN) have many responsibilities. It is probably one of the more demanding telecommuting jobs. You’re not just going to be answering phone calls and giving healthcare advice. A TTN has to assess a patient’s health condition and concerns without seeing them in person, so they must use all the knowledge and prior experience they can to give the most accurate advice. They must be able to easily convey information effectively and make the patient understand what they say.

Triage nurses usually take calls from people who call after hours or who can’t get ahold of their primary doctor. These nurses give the patient the best advice they can on what they should do about their symptoms and tell them if they need to go to the emergency room. This is definitely a work-from-home job because all you really need is your advanced medical knowledge and a phone. You probably will be contacted at night since most people call after-hours, but it’s okay because you can, at least, lie in bed while you answer their questions.

With any of these jobs, you need to have the proper credentials and know what you are doing. Just because you can do them from home doesn’t mean they are easy. Doing some jobs from home just takes a little of the sting out of working, so it’s nice to have the option. Plus, freelancers and internet based companies are booming at the moment. These telecommuting jobs are great for people that want a little freedom of location in their lives and that are self-motivated. For other people, they need an office and structure but for people that want independence and who are self-starters, working a telecommute job has it’s perks.